Let’s talk about fitness and health goals.
To start off this year, and decade, I made some health goals for myself. Last year I did a “bulking and strength” cycle for about 8-10 months that worked pretty well for me at the time. I dosed out the proper amount of creatine for my training sessions, drank plenty of water, and got pretty thick. Being new to practice meant I had more time to myself, so I was easily able to dedicate 3-5 days a week of exercise plus surfing time. It was AWESOME. However, as things are ramping up in my life and practice, I just don’t have that same time to devote to training and surfing so I needed to make changes to other things I can – my diet. From October of 2019 through the holidays, I mentally kept track of a good portion of the meals I was consuming. Let me tell you, it’s INSANE the amount of carbs that are easily (lazily) available to the average consumer. Needless to say, my diet revolved around carbs… and carbs… and carbs. Don’t get this confused though, CARBS ARE NOT THE ENEMY – only you are.
Your body needs a healthy amount of Carbohydrates, Fats, and Proteins to function at its best. If you are wondering what those numbers are, you should see someone that specializes in nutrition and performance. I can give you guidelines to generally cover a good portion of the population, but if I’m being honest, most people will just run with whatever those numbers are and fail, then blame genetics or my general guidelines and chalk it up to some “hokey diet” that doesn’t work for you. You won’t get what you are looking for in some short 30 day plan – you’re actually missing the point entirely. It is not about how you starve or restrict yourself, it is about your gut microbiome health.
“What in the world is my gut? and how do I reset it?” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3957428/
Your gut is the lining of your stomach. There are millions of micro-bacteria within your stomach that coat the walls of your cilia (the little arms that grab and absorb the food to your body once it’s digested) which are responsible for digesting your food. Your stomach is a violent environment with a pH of approximately 2 on average. (For those non-science nerds, here’s a neat graph! https://www.smilenaturally.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ph-chart.jpg ) So the next time you have indigestion and you go to those Tums or Antacids, think to yourself, is it too acidic in there? or is it possibly something else? Because there isn’t many more things that are more acidic than our stomach.
“Ok, so what even IS a ‘better diet’?” – Great question.
1) Go talk to a nutritional specialist about YOUR specific dietary needs, and 2) Think Greek! https://translational-medicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12967-017-1175-y The mediterranean diet is widely known to have higher amounts of fat, but it’s GOOD fat. Higher amounts of Mono- and Poly- unsaturated fats have showed to be better for your overall gut health AND lowers your risk for CardioVascular Disease. The “Western” diet is high in saturated fats and low in unsaturated fats, which affects the way our cholesterol (HDLs-good and LDLs-bad) transport and store fat for energy.
“Ok, that all seems really complicated…what else can I do?”
You can start by decreasing your intake of types of breads and starches across the board. If you are American, there’s a good chance you like to pair carbs with carbs and other carbs because it’s simple, cheap, and can feed a ton of people. You’re not wrong, but you’re also killing yourself. Your move.
You can also find a good Probiotic that has plenty of cultures of Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Bifidobacterium. In my office we currently keep supplies of xymogen products. I trust them for the amount of research they have put out on nutrition, and their STRICT guidelines on potency, purity, and WHO they sell to. Xymogen ONLY sells it’s product to licensed healthcare practitioners and you are not able to find their products on eBay or Amazon. They are also the only company I am aware of that actually has MORE strains of probiotics than is actually stated in their packaging. I typically suggest people take the 30 or 100 billion strains (yes, BILLION) as stated by their healthcare practitioner.
So, what am I doing for my health goals?
I mentioned at the start of this post that I was changing my diet for 2020, and I am. It is NOT going to be easy, but the research is overwhelming about waist size, microbiome health, weight, and diet affect your overall health and morbidity. So, it is my goal to be as congruent as possible with my requests of my patients and to “take a dose of my own medicine”. Yes, I am starting 2020 by following a 21-day cleanse and purification, created by Standard Process, and am using xymogen for my nutrition. https://www.standardprocess.com/Products/Literature/Patient-Purification-Program-Guide I am currently a few days into this process as I type this post, and it will not be easy. I will not meet my overall goals I set for myself for the year in this time, BUT I am looking for this process to jumpstart my future dietary changes. The cleanse will help detoxify and effectively reset my gut microbiome so that when I finish it will be easier and more sustainable to choose better foods for myself. Also, this cleanse is forcing me to be creative with recipes and the restrictions of the cleanse. For example, I tried this recipe for dinner last night and it was AWESOME! https://www.loveandlemons.com/nut-free-hemp-seed-kale-pesto/
At the end of the day, there is no quick-fix to your health. It is a long JOURNEY that starts with little positive choices that ultimately change your life. Eating healthy takes time and commitment. Are you committed to yourself?
Dr. Jonathan Marshall, DC 
